


The Forest of Memories

by lumienarc



Series: Hauntober 2020 [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27147187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumienarc/pseuds/lumienarc
Summary: Entry for Hauntober 2020 prompt #10, 11, 12, 13, 14 because, again, I didn't have time (soz): Forest, Nightmare, Black Cat, Bat, Spider
Series: Hauntober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948243
Kudos: 1





	The Forest of Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Minor edits 24 October 2020 because I wrote "major" instead of "mayor". I have been making fun of major keys for several days. This is my punishment lmao

He didn’t know how many times he had been trapped there whenever he went to sleep, but he only remembered it when he was in there. Once he woke up, he just recalled that he dreamt of something unpleasant, but he didn’t know what it was all about. It always started with the same one—the memory of Mr. Horton nudging him to marry Elizabeth, the mayor’s secret lover. It was odd, but Mr. Horton kept saying he was in love with her and she loved him back. Sam disagreed strongly, saying that only Frederic, the mayor, was her true love. He had been asked to marry many women and he actually married one a year ago, one that he regretted because he only agreed because Barbara Forts said she would finance Sam’s farm after terrible year destroyed his business. Then, after being angry at Horton, he would always run to the forest. Their town was surrounded by it, but there was one particular forest that he always headed to. The one at the north. It was the darkest, full with stuff of nightmares, as they said, the sun found it hard to go past the leaves of the trees. Whenever he entered it, it always felt like it was in the middle of the night. He was afraid, he jumped at the slightest noise, and he screamed when something touched him. His heart thumped crazily, he felt cold but he sweated buckets, and his mind was numb with fear. He punched his way through the thick bushes and rows of trees until he reached a glade. It was the only place that he knew was open in that forest. On the contrary of everything that he had to go through getting there, that place gave him peace. There was a small lake and, in his dreams, it always had the moon reflected on the surface. It was strange, very strange, yet he stayed there for a long time until he saw someone in a black cloak emerged from the trees. The cloaked person didn’t realise he was there and shed their cloak. He could not see their face or their body because the moonlight enveloped them fully. He heard a low buzz followed by melodious voice that sounded like it came from the sky. The figure started dancing and something in him kept trying to urge him to reach out. When he succumbed to the command, he stood, but failed. His feet were stuck into the ground, strong ivy crawled out of the woods and ensnared him. He called out for help, but his voice drowned in the sea of heavens’ song. He then slowly sank further down, cold crept up to his body, darkness came at last, and as the last light he saw was fading, a face looked down—a familiar face. That person wanted to help, but it was too late. He was gone. And there he would wake up in sweats, heart beating his chest as if it wanted to break out of it. Why, why would he keep dreaming this? Why would he always forget about it? Then, suddenly, his body moved on its own. He ran out of the house barefooted. 

***** 

The tea was not enough to calm the pumpkin-headed kid down. Cecilia must think of something quickly because despite the kid was happy and cheery when she arrived, he became extremely depressed later. He was having a mental breakdown and she didn’t think it was possible for someone who did not even remember that he was human once. Cedric had run into the forest, seeking for wisdom his way, leaving Cecilia to fend for herself until he returned—hopefully with real solution to this predicament. 

“Hey, hey! Wait!” Cecilia caught the kid before he could leave the room, climbing the stairs. He was cold, like a corpse and she was shocked. It made her freeze for a second and it instantly stopped him from being panicking. Cecilia put on her apologetic face, but the pumpkin baby looked even sadder. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—” 

“No, it’s okay,” his small voice replied. “I know I am not normal. I remembered. I just woke up not long before Papa summoned me here. I don’t remember much. I don’t remember anything, but I saw Frederic, my cousin, has grown up and has had a kid of his own. I know I am not normal.” He started to cry. The situation was evolving so quickly that Cecilia didn’t have time to digest what actually was happening. Her husband didn’t say anything, the pumpkin baby went from happy to manic in a split second. The tea was on the floor. Now the baby was crying. He really could cry with tears just like humans. Realising this, he cried even more. 

“I thought… I thought I could not cry anymore,” he sobbed. 

“Oh, baby… you are my baby now,” she said, pulling him into her embrace. She got used to his body temperature as fast as she could. She stroked the pumpkin head gently as she tried to calm him down. “We can think about your memories later, okay? How about we choose a name for you?” 

“Okay…” the boy answered although weakly. Cecilia pulled out the list of names she and Cedric compiled for… reasons, and then she sat down with the boy on the floor, many more books readied around them for further reference. 

“Let’s see what name you would like.” 

They went through hundreds of names, but the kid didn’t like any of those. Cecilia was running out of ideas as well. Then, she thought of the forest— “What about Forest?” It was simple, it was where everyone here belonged. Even Cecilia considered the forest as her home. The boy looked up and his pumpkin face suddenly lit up. 

“Yes! Yes! Yes! I love the forest!” It would seem that he didn’t get it, Cecilia was about to tell him what she meant by it, but the boy continued jovially, “I want to be the forest. I want to be Forest!” Cecilia chuckled. 

“Okay, so from today, we call you Forest Dijon.” 

“Isn’t dijon a mustard, Mama?” 

Cecilia stopped and stared at him. She realised her new son was definitely a rich son before. 

***** 

In the north woods, Cedric walked calmly toward a cottage that was enveloped by darkness. It was where he always ran to whenever he needed help. The person lived there knew more about the powers he had than anyone else he had met and known. At the door, a black cat stared at him, judging. He smiled and the cat moved away from the door, allowing him to enter. The cat was still watching him from the side, and once he was inside, it would return to its post in front of the door. Despite the darkness outside, the cottage’s interior was filled with soft, silvery light. It came from the figure that was lying still on the bed at the corner of the cottage. 

Cedric manoeuvred around the table, chairs, and the sleeping bat that hung upside down near the bookshelf. He took a seat next to the bed, and waited for the person to wake up naturally. It did not take a minute, actually, because the person knew whenever someone was approaching, even when they had just entered the forest. The person signalled with a hand, pointing at a neatly folded cloak on the stool next to the chair Cedric was sitting on. He handed the cloak. Instantly the silvery light dimmed as the person wore the cloak, but there was warm light emitting from the lamp above the table. Cedric had no trouble adjusting, so did person. 

“Why are you here today?” a female voice asked. 

“I need your knowledge.” 

“On what?” 

“A boy.” 

She stopped and slowly looked at Cedric suspiciously. 

“What did you do?” 

“Your Highness Freyja, don’t judge me, please.” Cedric just laughed. “It was an experiment. I didn’t think it would work. It was a summoning spell, but slightly different. It summoned a lost soul that needed a second chance or wanted a new purpose in life that was robbed from them. However, what I summoned was a boy with a pumpkin head and he is a handful. I tried to calm him down when suddenly he was overwhelmed by memories that he did not remember with earthy tea, but it didn’t work. I am wondering if you know anything about this boy.” 

“That was a horrifyingly difficult spell to experiment with, o powerful one,” Freyja sneered. She slowly straightened up her body, and faced Cedric directly. She sighed. She opened her left palm. Cedric obediently put his hand on her palm. She sighed. “Well, I know this one. I really hate this story, but I know it from the only witness that saw it happened. Mary Orme.” 

“The mute girl.” 

“Yes. She couldn’t do anything, so they let her be.” 

“But when you are under the moon, you can read her mind.” 

“And she, despite her conditions, kept asking to the moon for help. She needed to tell someone about what she had seen. So, I came to her and saw what happen through her eyes. It was an accidental murder. A group of teenagers. Everyone in the town had gone from around there except Mary and her grandmother, who left her to bask in the moonlight. The peasants went to the festival, the rich went to the garden party. The teens fled from the party, your boy was not the youngest among them, but he was always a scapegoat. They went too far that night, and they didn’t know it until he fell from the tree and broke his neck. They just buried him under the tree from whence he fell. They were afraid, so they decided to keep silent about it. They saw Mary, but they knew she couldn’t tell a soul. They hurriedly left. And this happened twenty years ago.” 

Suddenly the bat was awake and flew past Cedric’s head. It landed on Freyja’s automatically extending arm. The bat didn’t make sound except with its flapping wings. It stared at Cedric just like how the cat outside did, but with different intention. It was talking, but inside its mind, trying to reach Cedric, but failed. 

“Wait, is that Mary?” Cedric came into realisation. The bat blinked. 

“She is Mary,” Freyja said. “Before she passed away, she asked for her soul to be transferred somewhere else. She wanted to live differently. After all this time, she stays with me like this. She doesn’t remember her past, but she is happy and satisfied with her job. She can read and write now. She does patrols for me as well at night.” 

“That reminds me. Why did you return? You deliberately hide yourself from the moon like this, isn’t it better for you to stay in your house? Not to mention you had a good life there, away from troubles. You left to save people and you were back again? Did the cursed people know?” 

Cedric didn’t talk much, as the myth went, but he was actually a chatterbox. It was just that he only talked about what normal people did not understand at all. Freyja sighed. She dragged herself out of the bed reluctantly. There was a soft ringing sound that emanated from beneath her cloak. Cedric thought it was a ringing sound, but it was more of a chime that wouldn’t stop and just lingered in the air, giving one that heard it the feeling of afloat in an empty cosmos with thousands of tiny lights all over the place. Cedric did not know what it was, certainly, because the mysterious woman would not talk about it, rather to hide it away from everyone else. It might sound beautiful if let out, he believed. 

“I was told to come, the volva said I must be here again to prevent a grave danger. I asked if I could leave again soon, she said I could, but after the Halloween.” She walked to the corner for a minute, looking for something. In a very small voice, she said, “There is a spider’s web I need to take care of.” Cedric didn’t ask and pretended that he didn’t hear it although she knew well that he could. She finally found what she searched for and then brought it back to where Cedric was sitting. It was a heavy small pouch. 

“Your pumpkin son needs to get a hang of his second life. He needs time, but mostly, he needs to understand his body. He might not be stable at the moment because his body might not be formed perfectly.” She, of course, judged Cedric’s skill at this point and Cedric just grinned apologetically. “Here. Feed him roasted pumpkin seeds every day aside from human food. If you run out of these, you might get more from anywhere you like, but put them on top of your roof when the moon is out. Put maple leaves underneath them. Leave them for one night. The longer they are exposed to the moon, the better, but before the sun rises, take them down and store in a dark jar, cover them with more maple leaves. Eating these will help his head to function better, and then your experimental spell will reach perfection.” 

She gave the pouch to Cedric. He smiled at her, and asked, “Thank you, but when do we stop feeding him these?” 

Freyja sighed again, but she seemed sure when she answered. 

“When he feels he is himself again. You need to observe and ask him. It might take a while. If you don’t want to, you may undo the spell right away and I can tell you how to do it.” 

“No, I don’t want to,” quickly Cedric said. There was fear that appeared in his chest and mind when he heard her offer. It was unwanted, but he wasn’t offended or angry that she brought it up. He just felt... sad. “I want to keep him with us.” 

Freyja’s eyes softened and she smiled, although it was such a sad smile. Cedric wondered if he ever saw her smile happily since he first knew her. He could only remember Cecilia’s happy smile. It somehow made him feel sorry for Freyja. She might be a lonelier soul than he was. 

“You are the weirdest human I ever encountered, Cedric,” stated she. Cedric was leaving when she said this. He laughed. 

“No, I am not.” 

Freyja stopped, as if she was taken aback, but she wasn’t. The sadness in her eyes was amplified, but she tried to mask it from Cedric. 

“You are. He doesn’t have powers like you.” 

“Well, if you say so, Your Highness,” he said, bowing. Freyja rolled her eyes. “Thank you.” 

“Good luck with your son.” 

And then, Cedric returned home. 

Freyja cried in silence. 


End file.
